23. Dex

23

DEX

A s strategies went, this shit was everything I would have expected from Aneirans.

I dove for the princess as the crossbow bolts tore through the air. Colliding with her, I twisted to keep from crushing her even as we both fell to the ground.

Behind where she had been standing, a giant screamed.

I threw a glance back, but I barely needed the confirmation. I already knew what I’d see.

Aneira was so fond of horrific weaponry.

The prisoner’s stone-like skin began to crack. Pitch-black rot crawled out from the fissures, spreading across his skin. He clawed at the damage while more screams rose—other giants, other rotting wounds.

My stomach clenched, old memories fighting to rise. At the start of the war, the Aneirans had been outmatched by the Erenlians’ sheer power and innate skill with magic. But they’d found ways to compensate for that.

Brutally.

One of the guards pressed his wristband to the bars. The gate to the massive prison cavern opened.

Giants rushed the gate, but the Aneirans were ready. Crossbow bolts shot out. Screams followed.

“Get in there, scum!” the first guard shouted at us over the sound of giants dying. “Now, you traitors, or we kill everyone!”

I snarled a curse, keeping Gwyneira behind me. Scenarios raced through my mind at high speed. So far, none of my friends had been hit by those damned bolts, but that was only because the guards were aiming higher, intent on eliminating the more physically threatening Erenlians first.

It wouldn’t last. Meanwhile, the tunnel behind us was blocked. The prison cell beside us was a death sentence.

Which left straight ahead, through those bastards.

“Roan!” I shouted.

Flattened to the ground, my friend’s gaze snapped to me.

“We need the demon.”

For a heartbeat, his face was grim. I knew that somber expression of his so well.

And then he muttered a curse and nodded.

His eyes went black. His lips pulled back in a vicious snarl. Skin and muscles rippling, his body shifted, wings sprouting from his back and his hands growing savage claws.

Crying out in shock, the guards stumbled back and scrambled to aim their crossbows at him.

Ruhl slammed into the nearest guard, while Casimir turned to smoke and slashed past another.

In my grasp, the princess shifted into her vampire form.

“Dammit!” I snapped. “Don’t?—”

She was already attacking the guards.

Gods, that woman. If we survived this, the things I’d do as repayment…

I exhaled sharply. Now was not the time for sexual fantasies.

Ordering myself to focus, I scanned the battle, but it was obvious there was little need to worry about anyone’s strategy. Gwyneira, Casimir, and the shadow wolf knocked the Aneirans down in rapid succession, the three of them moving like they’d been fighting together forever. They raced away again as the demon strode forward like he already knew exactly how he wanted to destroy the guards.

Gwyneira shifted back beside me. I took her arm, pulling her to my side and giving her a stern glare that she met with an unrepentant look.

She’d be the death of me, my stubborn little treluria.

Folding his hands behind his back like a school master with an errant pupil, the demon bent over the leader of the Aneirans. His tail sliced back and forth like a cat about to pounce. “Pathetic.” He grinned. “And squishy.”

His claws moved like lightning, driving into the man’s chest.

I winced. I’d seen a lot of bloodshed, yes. I wasn’t squeamish.

It was still strange to watch the creature my friend had become unleash such violence. Roan had always been anxious about anyone getting hurt. He’d worried constantly about everything from knives being left in the kitchen to a fire burning unattended—though given how I now knew his family had burned to death, I supposed that last bit made sense. But in his own way, he’d been something of a pacifist.

Perhaps that’d only been because he was afraid of the hell he—or the monster inside him—could wreak.

Because the demon clearly enjoyed the violence.

“Now,” the demon continued to the other guards, still grinning. “How fast can you run?”

The humans began scrambling to their feet, clearly taking him up on the offer to run for their lives.

He growled with satisfaction. The air began to heat up around him.

Oh hell.

“Get back!” I barked at the Erenlians. “Stay away from?—”

The ground began rumbling again. Even the demon paused, glancing around. “Beast,” he said to Ozias. “Is this your doing?”

A groan went through the earth. Cracks spread through the ceiling even faster than they had in the other tunnel.

“Are these fuckers insane?” Clay cried, backing up.

Retreating as well, Lars scoffed. “I’m guessing the answer to that is ‘yes.’”

“Now what, Dex?” Niko called.

I looked around fast, searching for a new way out of here—never mind that the Aneirans clearly intended to collapse this entire place on top of our heads, piece by piece.

Fuck, there was nothing. No escape except?—

In a cascade, the tunnel ahead started to fall like an upside-down wave rushing at us.

“Demon!” Gwyneira cried.

I grabbed the princess and ran for the only option I could see.

The cage.

Rocks rained down behind us. Guards cried out, unable to reach the gate before the collapse took them. The giants tumbled through the opening on the heels of my friends, but a few couldn’t move fast enough.

The giants at the rear screamed as the rocks buried them. I could only watch in horror, barely breathing for fear the collapse would take us too.

Symbols flared on the bars, same as they had on the support beams in the mine tunnels. The rumbling stopped.

Shuddering, I stared at the wall of stones that now filled the tunnel beyond the metal bars. Gods damn these Aneiran sadists. They’d built the whole mine as a series of endless boxes, any one of which they could send crumbling down.

But now, there were no tunnels left.

In my arms, Gwyneira trembled, her breaths coming quick and shallow. “Is there another way out of here?” she whispered.

I couldn’t bring myself to respond, not when I had a sinking suspicion of what the answer would be.

Gods, where were the humans we’d left on the surface?

Even as I had the thought, I knew the likely answer. Dead . I may not have trusted Valeria and her Aneiran farmers much, but I doubted they would have betrayed us this badly.

They must have fallen to the forces trying to kill us, so help probably wasn’t coming from that direction.

Holding Gwyneira close, I scanned the cavern, assessing whatever options remained. My friends were alive. Most of the giants had made it into the cage. The Aneiran guards were gone, crushed by the collapse.

Nothing in me could be sad about the last part, considering they’d wanted to kill us.

“What the fuck ?” Clay snarled as he climbed to his feet. Swiping dust from his clothes, he glared around the cavern.

“Ozias,” I called, “are you picking up on any other exits?”

My friend shoved upright. His lips peeled back over his teeth like he was barely restraining a growl. “No.”

Dammit, this made no sense. Why trap us where they couldn’t reach us?

Unless this was their endgame. A final measure that, if they could not contain a rebellion or escape attempt, meant they could send the earth itself to entomb their prisoners.

After all, every giant here was bound away from their magic, and the ground at surface level was laced with a layer of silver and spells so thick, even witches couldn’t penetrate it. Down here, the suppressive effect was reduced, at least—likely because the Aneirans still wanted to force the Erenlians to use their power when the guards chose. But the magic still served as an impenetrable barricade. Even if the giants had overthrown the guards, they couldn’t dig through it. The ground was unstable as fuck. Shovels and pickaxes would likely cause a cave-in, if another spell didn’t just crush them before they could try.

Gods, it was sadistic and ingenious as fuck.

And if we didn’t come up with an escape plan, it’d also get us killed.

Grim resolve settled over me. Us, perhaps. But not Gwyneira. If all else failed, we would dig as close to the surface as we could and then she, Casimir, and Ruhl could shift. The ground was poisoned by magic, and gods knew it’d probably hurt the three of them like hell. But I trusted that the vampire king and his wolf would do everything in their power to protect her while they passed through the tiny cracks in the rock and soil to reach the surface.

After all, Casimir was just as obsessed with Gwyneira as the rest of us. I had plenty of evidence of that. Hell, ever since Byron’s magic brought her back after our run-in with those corrupted apple trees, the vampire had been watching her with an almost feral level of concern whenever she wasn’t looking.

Even if the rest of us were gone, he would defend her no matter what.

I let out a slow breath, grateful to have a plan, even if it was a final one. No, it wasn’t exactly the end I’d imagined for myself. I’d figured I would die in battle, or perhaps as an old man.

But if it was the last thing I did in this life, I would make sure Gwyneira survived.

“Ozias.” I turned back to my friend. “How close to the surface could you get us?”

His eyes narrowed as he studied the cavern ceiling overhead. “Not close enough to break through.”

“But close enough for vampires to pass through?”

He met my gaze. Over the years, he’d often kept his own counsel, rarely speaking more than a few words at a time. But I’d never been foolish enough to mistake that for a lack of intelligence.

My friend knew exactly what I was thinking.

Unfortunately, my treluria did too. “No,” Gwyneira protested immediately. “I’m not leaving you all down here to?—”

“Only for a short time,” I cut in, knowing it wouldn’t be anything of the sort. “Then we?—”

Niko put a hand to my arm, stopping me. He placed a finger to his lips with a wary look. Drawing closer, he whispered, “Ignatius said the guards have ways to hear us down here.”

These fucking Aneiran?—

A crackling sound came from the wall, but not like stone breaking. More like miniature lightning fizzling along the stone. “Attention, prisoners.”

“And they have a way to speak to us too,” Niko murmured with a dark look at the walls. “They don’t use it much so no one has a chance to figure out where the spells are placed, but they’re always watching in case?—”

“Your disobedience brought this punishment upon you.” The voice boomed out from the stone, echoing around the cavern in a dizzying fashion. “You have one chance to avoid being left to die.”

This couldn’t be good.

“Do you see the humans in your cell?” the guard continued. “They and their beasts are vicious killers and traitors to the crown. The queen promises if you kill them, we will free you. But be warned.” I could hear the smile in the guard’s voice. “The woman is the most dangerous of all. Be sure to destroy her at any cost.”

My friends drew in, circling Gwyneira immediately. Around the cavern, the giants rose, staring at us.

Fuck.